Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My father who practiced internal medicine for 42 years in Taiwan used to tell us “ 90% of what I know about medicine, I learned them from my patients”. The longer I am on this path, the more I agree with him. Gluten-Free Diet is one of the examples.

Since I became open-minded to holistic medicine 15 years ago, I have many children with autism spectrum disorder came to my practice. Their Moms always told me how gluten-free diet helped their children. At that time, I was like most of the other physicians who only knew Celiac disease, but never heard of Gluten sensitivity. After a few years, I started to recommend Gluten-free diet to some patients whom I ran out of treatment options. Miraculously, many of their symptoms improved with some of them had life changing experiences. Some mothers had their own chronic fatigue or thyroid problems improved or even cured after they went to gluten-free diet with their children.

Cases after cases of improvements happened to my patients, I couldn’t help but take a serious look into this situation. I found Gluten sensitivity did not always have digestive symptoms like Celiac disease, but had vague symptoms that mimic many chronic conditions. Diseases that have strong association with Gluten sensitivity include but not limited to ADD/ADHD, Autism,atuto-immune disease, Asthma, Irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s Disease,Depression, Diabetes, Infertility, GE reflux, migraine/headache, thyroid diseases. obesity and osteoporosis. On top of this, the regular labs do not have reliable tests to diagnose Gluten sensitivity, Those reasons make Gluten sensitivity diagnosis a challenge.

Unlike peanut allergy which appears within few hours (an IgE response), gluten sensitivity is an IgG response that takes 2-3 days to show up and can be modified by our own immune system. Most of us eat Gluten on daily basis, so it’s almost impossible to recognize the symptoms associating with Gluten. The other reason that makes it hard to diagnose is that we need to stay 100% Gluten-Free for 6 weeks to see the full benefits of Gluten-Free diet. Even a slight amount of cheating will make the results not obvious.

Gluten is a protein very hard to digest. Gluten-rich grains appeared in humans diet only in the past 12,000 years which is a very short time comparing to 2.5 millions of diet consisting mainly fruits, vegetables, meat and fish since our ancestors were on the earth. It’s no wonder many of us can’t tolerate Gluten. One third of our population has Gluten sensitivities. Since I paid close attention to Gluten sensitivity, I found 50% of the patients walking through my door actually have their symptoms improved with Gluten free diet. Many of the changes are dramatic. I believe any patients with any neurological disorders, behaviour problems, any digestive symptoms, any auto-immune disease(include Diabetes), any thyroid conditions and any undiagnosed chronic conditions should give himself/herself a honest 6 weeks trial of Gluten-Free diet.

Gluten does appear on wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, triticale, many of the sauces and processed foods. If making such a commitment is hard for you, we can also order IgG food sensitivity tests through holistic labs to get more definite diagnosis.

"Cortisol has been a God-send for myself and also my son. I have had an underactive thyroid for years and was treated with a synthetic thyroid medication. However, I rarely felt well, even on the synthetic thyroid drug. Upon consulting with and being treated by Dr. Huang, she discovered I not only had an underactive thyroid (for which she is treating me with a natural thyroid medication, and I feel much better on it); but she also diagosed me with adrenal fatigue. I began feeling better almost immediately once Dr. Huang began treating me with cortisol for this adrenal fatigue. I regained the energy I hadn't had for years, began exercising again (prior to cortisol treatment, I couldn't even think of organizing my home or exercising), and even found the energy to put myself on a healthy eating plan, with Dr. Huang's help. After six months, I am now the person I once was years ago. My son was also diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and treated with cortisol. He was not able to attend his field trips and field days two years in a row due to an ever-decreasing energy level, among other health issues related to adrenal fatigue. He was finally able to attend those school functions after being on cortisol for only a week. Cortisol has proven to be the missing link in most of our health issues, if not all. I am very grateful for this course of treatment and do not know where my son or I would have been without it. Thank you." Karen M.